Pharmacist interventions in asthma.

The paper by MEHUYS et al. [1] adds to the body of literature which demonstrates the utility of pharmacist-led disease management interventions in improving asthma care. The intervention in this study included education about asthma management, inhaler technique, medication adherence and, in some cases, smoking cessation. The multi-facilitated approach of this and several previous studies raises the question of which particular element(s) contributed to the improved asthma outcomes. BASHETI and co-workers [2, 3] have shown that a pharmacist intervention targeting only dry powder inhaler technique was effective in improving asthma control and asthma-related quality of life compared with a ‘‘sham’’ intervention (teaching peak flow meter technique). In this study, the intervention was delivered in an average of only 2.5 min per visit, suggesting that it should be feasible for incorporation into normal pharmacy practice.